I Can See What's Happening
by Violet Frost
Summary: Shiro/Allura Lance/Kieth As the lion warriors grow as a team they also grow as friends, family, and for a few of them maybe...something more.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

 **I posted this story yesterday but for some reason the file seems to of gotten corrupted. So when you click on it, it refuses to let you view it. I figured it would just be easier to take the old story down and repost it finger crossed it works this time!**

 **As I said in the original A/N this story is meant to be a longer-term side project just for fun to give me a break from all the normal academic writing I do.**

 **Also, I put this at the start of all my new stories. I have a minor learning disability that sometimes affects my spelling and grammar skills. Since this project is just for fun I don't use a beta reader or have another person edit it. So if you see any mistakes let's all just be chill about it.**

"I don't know what all of you are complaining about," Lance said as he stretched out on the couch in the main hall of the castle. "Being separated wasn't that bad."

"You know not all of us were lucky enough to of been rocketed to a tropical Island spa planet, Lance!" Grumbled Kieth on the opposite side of the room. He was the second to last of them to get back to the castle. He had narrowly escaped being trapped inside of an enormous gas cloud, having to rewire the red lions GPS to be able to map out his route.

"That's enough Cadets" Shiro's firm voice carried across the room as he, Allura, and Hunk walked in. "Now that Hunk is back we are a team once again so we can move forward with our mission,"

"Yeah! Team Voltron back and ready to take on the forces of evil!" Hunk cheered sitting down on the couch next to Pidge who was frantically typing into a laptop. Pidge had been murmuring something over the past few days about a new mapping program for the castle but none of the team really understood what it would do. "By the way guys," Hunk continued, "Thanks for swooping in and saving me back there. Who knew that there would be a planet inhabited only by fire-breathing alligators."

"It was nothing," The princess insisted "I really should be commemorating you Hunk on your bravery for breaking into my cell and being the one to save me."

"I can't take full responsibility on that one. All of team Voltron wanted to save you"

Lance made a sound from his laid-back position on the couch "Yeah all of team Voltron besides Keith"

"Lance!" Everyone besides himself and the princess shouted. All astonished that he would bring up what Keith had said about Allura right in front of her.

"What do you mean?" Allura asked Looking from Lance to Kieth when she received no response she turned to the black Paladin. "What does he mean by that?"

"Nothing," he responded making a mental note to have a talk with Lance latter "Now princess please tell us what our next move is"

Allura stepped into the center of the room and pulled up the map of the universe. Filling the entire room with blue holograms of stars and planets and galaxies. No matter how many times Allura did this the Paladins were always amazed.

"We are currently here," She pointed out with her hand to a space near two small planets. "And our current plan is simple. Clearly, we don't have what it takes to bring Zarkon to its knees"

"You have the power to bring me to my knees," Lance flirtatiously commented with a smirk from his spot on the couch

"Lance" Shiro scolded him as he always did when Lance bothered Allura. But something In Shiro's voice today was a little sharper than usual. Sure Shiro would be firm when shutting down Lance's attempts to make an ass of himself but he always found the young cadets comments a tad amusing.

"Like I was saying," The princess continued "We may be too weak now, but if we free enough planets and gain enough allies then hopefully we will one day be strong enough to ride the universe of Zarkon once and for all"

"That's the plan?" Kieth, who had been so quiet the whole time they had almost forgotten he was there, asked. "I'm sorry but that does not seem very detailed plan"

"It's the best we have" Allura insisted shutting down the hologram.

"Hey don't disrespect the princess" Lance shot his words at Keith, leaning across Pidge and Hunk to get closer to the others boy face with the goal of antagonizing him more.

Kieth met Lance's advance as was now leaning in eye level with him "I was not disrespecting her, I was just pointing out that if we want to defeat an empire we need more of a plan!"

Lance leaned in more, just enough to assert his dominance. He was about to fire back his next remark when he realized he had climbed entirely on top of Hunk and Pidge making His face only inches away from Keith's. He swore he saw the other boys cheeks grow pink even in the slightest. He quickly turned his face away from Keith's and towards the princess

"Don't listen to this guy, I got your back babe" he winked.

This caused two of the Lion warriors to have two very different but very important reactions. One unnoticeable and one un-ignorable. The un-ignorable one came from the black Paladin.

"Lance! Seriously? Stop. No one is amused by those comments so please no more, just cut it out okay." He did not raise his voice at all, it was the straightforward harshness of Shiro's words that took everyone by surprise. His overreaction had caused the whole team, even Allura, to raise an eyebrow. A week ago his reaction would have been bothered yet amused, ten minutes ago it was annoyed, but now Shiro sounded thoroughly offended.

They all looked from Shiro to Lance wondering who would speak next.

"I'm… I guess I'm sorry," Lance murmured sitting up slightly straighter on the couch coming to full attention now, rattled by Shiro's words. Shiro alway spoke with an air of formality, hearing the older Lion Warrior scold him in such a straightforward, hold nothing back, no BS, manner shook him. "I didn't mean to disrespect you, Princess… I was just… anyway, what were you saying about the planets and finding allies?" He hurried to change the subject, hoping that was the end of Shiro's scolding.

The other reaction came from Kieth and was almost unnoticeable but was just as telling as Shiro's. After Lance had said his pickup line to the princess everyone was busy looking at either Lance or Shiro.

But if they had looked at Kieth they would have noticed, ever so slightly, that his face dropped upon hearing Lance's words. A look halfway between disappointment and sadness filled his eyes. But no one (this time at least) noticed.

They went on with their meeting, discussing which planet would be the best to free first, if any friends of Allura's family were still alive, how could they improve their lions. Till eventually they all agreed it was time for lunch. No one gave another thought to the two reactions caused by Lance's words.

However if they did this is the conclusion they would have come to.

Both Shiro and Kieth, for the first time ever, were deeply bothered a great deal by Lances flirting with Allura.

 **A/N**

 **Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it I know this part was not very plot heavy or had a lot of cute moments heavy but it's only the first chapter of** **bigger** **story. Unlike one** **shots** **the story has to build over time but the** **pay off** **is worth it! (I love stories like that) I hope reposting works!**

 **-VF**


	2. Two Conversations and a Fight

**A/N**

 **Oh my gosh all of you lovely! I was not expecting to get such nice reviews, let alone so many of them! Reading all of them made me so happy and got me excited so I made this chapter extra long. I am really excited to share it with you guys this has been some one of my favorite scence from anystory to write!**

* * *

Later that day all of Team Voltron were off in different parts of the castle attending to personal matters. The first planet they choose to liberate was far enough to have to spend half a day's worth of traveling to, but not far away enough to warrant opening a wormhole.

"End training sequence," Keith breathlessly said as he stood in the training deck standing over dozens of defeated training bots. He heard soft clapping coming from the doorway.

"Very impressive," Allura complemented him.

" _How long has she been there?"_ Keith thought to himself.

"Are you done for the day?"

"No, I was probably going to keep at it for a while longer. There really isn't much else to do," Keith said awkwardly. Out of all his team members, Keith felt farthest from Allura. He would never admit it but the truth was he was much more comfortable around Lance than he was Allura, and that was saying something. " _At least I know how to talk to that idiot. The only ones around here who know how to talk to her are Hunk, but that's because he's Hunk… And of course, Shiro but even he messes up with her a lot,"._

A fear then hit Keith _why_ was the Princess here? She had never sought out Kieth before. His mind flashbacked to earlier that morning, about Lance bringing up t up that he did not want to save Allura. She asked Shiro what he meant but never got an answer.

" _She's here to confront me,"_ Keith thought.

"So, if you're still training, do you want to spar together?" Allura offered

 _"I was wrong… She's here to kick my ass,"_

* * *

"Lance I swear to space god if you touch my computer one more time," Pidge threatened the blue paladin for the fifth time as they sat at the kitchen table. Pidge had completely taken over half of the table as her own personal tec-lab. She was currently studying the paladin's hand weapons, trying to figure out how they were able to change in size.

"Oh come on I'm board!" Lance complained slumping in his chair so much he almost fell to the floor.

"Then you can come and help me," Shiro said as he walked into the room "I was looking for Pidge but it appears that he is actually being productive," he made a motion with his hand and began to walk out of the room. "You coming?"

Lance exchanged a glance with Pidge who didn't bother looking up from her work. Lance had already been scolded by Shiro once today and hoped he was not walking into a trap of some sort. The boy finally determined that if he was in trouble again it was better to get it over with sooner rather than later.

"Yeah I'm coming,"

The walked silently down the hall for a few minutes, Lance noted that they were going towards the lion hangers. Finally, Lance could not take it anymore, the silence, the waiting for Shiro to start scolding him again.

"Look, Shiro, I'm sorry,"

Shiro stopped walking then turned to face the teenager

"What?"

"Listen I know you want to talk to me in private so you can finish the lecture you started this morning. I know it's wrong to poke fun like that at Allura, that I should not flirt with her but I promise it's all in good fun. I never actually mean it… okay the first few times I did but now it's just for fun and -"

"You don't mean anything by it?" Shiro asked quietly his voice calm and steady, the complete opposite to Lance's panic.

"No, not anymore! I flirt with her because it's funny not because I am actually trying to woo her,"

"So… you don't have a thing for Allura?"

"No, I promise! I mean she's beautiful but even if you take away the 10,000 years of sleep she is still closer to your age than mine. Shiro, I never meant to disrespect Allura or the team it was just meant to be all in good fun and then you got so mad, dude I'm so-"

 _"Lance,"_ Shiro's voice sharply cut off his words, holding up his hand signaling for the boy to stop. But Lance swore that there was a faint smile across Shiro's face now. That some part of his demeanor had lightened up "You are not in trouble because of that."

"I'm… not?"

"No, you're not," he laughed trying to remove some of the tension "If anything I'm the one who should be sorry I overreacted."

"Oh thank god,"

"However,"

"There it is"

Shiro rolled his eyes " _However_ , I do need to talk to you about your behavior. While I did over react today, I stand by my sentiment that it needs to stop, your whole behavior as a team member needs to be checked,"

"Shiro what are you trying to say?"

He sighed, he was so proud of each and every member of his team that it pained him to give any bad news. But no one ever got better by only hearing what they did right.

"You need to start taking all of this more seriously," Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. "You're a great Lion warriors Lance, and a great pilot. But our last run in with Zarkon taught us that, as a team, we _all_ need to get better if we want to have a chance of winning this fight. You have been such a powerful addition to this team but you don't take it seriously enough. You're flirting with Allura, our team leader, is just one example of that,"

"I promised I'll never do it again!" Lance protested starting to panic once more.

"It's not just that. When I walked into you were arguing with Kieth, which seems to be a daily occurrence. And then later in the meeting a full on fight almost broke out between you two. Not to mention bringing up what he said to Allura. That was not okay in the slightest. A petty action like that, trying to start fights, that can tear a team apart. And did you even stop to think how Allura may have been hurt by that? She asked me what you meant and what was I suppose to say to her? That one of her teammates was willing to abandon her? And that her other teammate would passively bring it up for his own gain?!"

"Yeah but Keith was _also_ disrespecting Allura-"

Shiro held his hand up again "I know, I _am_ going to talk to him. But Lance you _need_ to make being a good team member a number one priority. You and Keith could be amazing together!"

Lance gave Shiro a surprised, almost embarrassed look.

"I mean as a team," Shiro said dryly. "You are both extremely capable talented cadets but you waste it with your fights. Lance, you are part of something bigger than yourself, don't throw that away,"

Lance was quite for a moment as he processed Shiro's words; finally he nodded looking the older Paladin in the eyes.

"You are right. I promise I'll start working harder for the team, I'll do good by the Lion Warrior name."

"I'm proud to hearing it," Shiro smiled

Lance relaxed, happy that the worst of their talk was now over.

"Now what was it you needed help with?"

"Honestly? Nothing, I was just trying to get you out of the kitchen so you would stop touching Pidges stuff,"

Lance's mouth hung open for a moment then turned into a smirk, impressed with his leader's trickery. He looked around and noticed that they were on the floor above the training deck facing the viewing window that allowed them to look down and see into the deck.

They walked over to the window to see who was below, the sight they found shocked both of them.

"Is that Allura and… Keith?!"

Shiro only nodded, the scene of Allura and Keith fighting had his full attention.

"Looks pretty evenly matched," Lanced commented as he watched Keith block all of Allura's punches and vice versa.

"She's holding back," Shiro said more to himself than to Lance. "She could be doing a lot more, why is she holding back?" He leaned in closer to the window to get a better look, his eyes fixed upon Allura.

This struck Lance as odd. Really odd.

"You know Shiro, you really did scare me this morning when you told me to stop flirting with Allura,"

Shiro only nodded, not listening to Lance at all.

"I mean you were so angry… almost as if you were-"

Lance was working it all out in his head. He looked at Shiro and noted that his eyes were locked on Allura, a warm smile was on his face. He remembered how Shiro smiled after Lance had insisted he did not have a thing for Allura.

It all clicked.

Lance smiled a smile that took up his whole face; his eyes grew wide as it all came together.

"Almost as if you were… _Jealous."_

"Damn," was his response. However he was not responding to Lance, but to Allura who had in one swift move tripped Kieth, flipped him over her shoulder, and had him pinned to the floor.

* * *

Keith thought very carefully about his response.

Out of all the time, Keith had spent in the training deck he had never actually seen Allura there training herself. But he knew better than to underestimate her strength, he remembered how she had taken down Lance when they first met her. Shiro had mentioned to him how we had taken to sparring with Allura, how she always managed to put up a good fight.

 _"She can't actually kill me, right?"_ He thought, _"A princess would not kill one of her knights… even if she was under the impression that the knight was willing to let her remain in the hands of their enemy's…"_

He swallowed knowing there was no getting out of it.

"Sure," was his response, and they began.

It was only hand-to-hand combat, which Keith was grateful for, but besides that they had not laid out the rules of what was and was not okay. Which made for a very dangerous match.

"How long do we go?" Kieth asked after about ten minutes of having all his hits be swiftly blocked by Allura.

"I think we will know when to stop," she said matter of factly.

They went on like that for what could have been hours. Neither of them had made much progress on defeating the other. Allura seemed to know exactly when to duck and stop Keith's advances.

 _"But at least she hasn't been able to get a hit on me either,"_ Kieth thought _"She's strong like Shiro said, but I guess when it comes to hand to hand we are equals,"_

The two fighters moved about the room slowly changing their style of fighting from boxing to trying to strike the other down. Allura spoke.

"You didn't want to come rescue me from Zarkon,"

 _"There it is,"_ He thought. "Honestly no, I didn't."

"Why?" Allura tried to swing her leg to trip Kieth but was too slow.

"Do you really want to have this conversation?" He grabbed hold of her arm behind her back. She pulled away within seconds.

"Yes,"

Kieth sighed, tired of the Princesses game "It's nothing against you Allura, but when you got captured the whole team was ready to go knocking on Zarkons door. _Despite_ the fact that five hours earlier Shiro said we were in no position to attack Zarkon like that,".

He swung his hand almost hitting Allura managing only to brush her hair with his knuckles.

"It's not that you are not important to the team or anything but…" he ducked as Allura hit back "You are not one of the lion warriors, we can still form Voltron without you. Sure we would all miss you, and not having you pilot the castle would be a setback, but we could get over that… eventually. If one of us got killed or taken we could not form Voltron and that would be as good as giving up this war altogether. Or if Zarkon got even _one_ of our Lions then there would not be a tomorrow for you or any of us. That's why I did not want us to come busting in after you, it was not worth the risk. We practically hand-delivered Voltron to Zarkon, that's what I wanted to prevent… nothing personal your majesty"

Allura smiled and when Keith's hand came up she moved but not quick enough to dodge.

 _"I got a hit in?"_ Kieth thought, _"Maybe she really did just wanted to talk to me,"_

Before he could think another thought Allura swiped her leg, much faster than she did the first time, knocking Kieth off balance, grabbed him using his own moment flipped him over her shoulder, knocking him flat on the floor pinning him down with her knees on his chest.

"You tricked me,"

Allura shrugged.

"You could have done that the entire time couldn't you? You could have got hits in the entire time, but you chose not to,"

"You want to know why?"

Kieth shook his head yes, desperate to figure out the enigma that Allura was.

"I can handle myself. I know how to bid my time and wait for the right moment to get the outcome I desire, not matter the situation,"

Kieth only looked up at her, not sure what she meant.

"I could have escaped myself from Zarkons prison. When I let myself over Shiro get captured it was not spurred of the moment; it was calculated. For the exact same reasons why you did not want to risk saving me,"

Kieth knit his brow trying to process her words.

"So what you are saying is?"

"You were right Kieth, every point you brought up was entirely correct. It was foolish of Shiro and the others to take on Zarkon like that just to save me. They should have listened to you I would have said the same thing,"

"You're not mad at me?"

"Not in the slightest," Allura got off of Kieth as she stood up she reached out her hand to help the red paladin off the floor. "I'm grateful that you are apart of the team. You were level headed when no one else was…" he voice grew a little quieter "Even when Shiro wasn't"

Kieth reached up and took Allura's hand allowing her to help pull him up. He still was not entirely comfortable around Allura, especially now that he knew that she was a master of trickery.

 _"Maybe we could be friends?"_ Kieth thought _"Really weird friends who judo flip each other and agree to not save each other when kidnapped… it's a start."_

He followed Allura as she walked out of training deck walking right next to her instead of fallowing in her stride.

"You know you shouldn't be upset with Shiro. He only acted rashly because he cares so much about you,"

Allura smiled but Kieth noted that it was not an entirely happy smile, there was some sadness to it.

"I know,"

Coran's voice came on over the intercom "If Princess Allura and the rest of the Paladins could return to the bridge we have reached our destination and well… there seems to be a minor problem."

* * *

"What do you mean they are not working?!" Allura exclaimed.

Everyone was on the bridge looking out of the windows at the medium sized green planet that they were planning on liberating.

"When the witch Hagar attacked our ship she seemed to of damaged all of the scanners including the one that scans planets and tells us who is down there,"

"So the only way to know who or what is down there is if we go down ourselves?" Shiro asked

"Right-tee-oh! Number one!"

Everyone looked at Coran.

"Remember I have you all ranked based on height!

"I think I can fix it," said Pidge who had taken off one of the castle panels and practically crawled inside. "But it may take a little while."

"We could still send someone down to check things out, no use in wasting time," Allura insisted.

"I don't see why not, as long as they are quick about it," Shiro shrugged "I would suggest Pidge since the green lion can cloak itself ,but he should stay here and fix the scanner,"

"So which one of us do you want to go?" Hunk asked anxiously hoping he would not have to do it.

"Kieth should his lion is the fastest" Shiro determined.

"Fine by me, I will be happy to have a chance to get out of the castle for a while,"

"You shouldn't go alone, could be dangerous, one of us should go with you," the black paladin said firmly.

"I'll go"

Everyone's heads turned.

The blue paladin had volunteered himself.

* * *

 **A/N I hope you liked that chapter I had so much fun writing it! And that's what this project is meant to be, Fun! Once again thanks to everyone who wrote a review they made me so happy! Reading them really motivates me to keep writing when I don't feel up to it.**

 **-VF**


	3. Pie and Matchmaking

**A/N**

 **Once again you guys have proven lovely with all your kind reviews! I am in aw of having 25 reviews on a story with only two chapters so far. I am so so so grateful for all of you who are reading.**

 **I am currently held up in my room due to major construction happening in my house so I hunkered down and wrote this chapter and am realizing it a few days ahead of my normal schedule.**

 **Just in case any of you are wondering if this story is more of a Shallura Fic or More of a Klance fic my goal is to make it an even split. I don't want either ship to be just in the background. Right now I try to split up each chapter to be half Shallura and half Klance. But as the story goes on some chapters may be more heavy on one than another.**

 **But I also want there to be an emphasis on the other team members to. I guess what I'm saying it's a cute shipping story but with a holistic approach!**

 **Anyway I hope you love this chapter**

* * *

" _I'll go."_

Those two words hung in the air for a moment as the rest of the team gawked at Lance.

"Unless you don't want me to…" Lance stammered growing quite embarrassed from the lack of a response from Keith.

"I think it's a great idea!" Shiro beamed. Proud to see that not only had his talk gotten through to Lance; but the boy was keeping good on his promise. Shiro was thrilled that Lance voluntarily wanted to work with Keith.

Keith on the other hand...

"No way in hell,"

" _Keith!"_ Allura and Shiro chided the red paladin in unison.

"You're not going down there alone,"

"Then I'll go with Hunk," Keith made a motion with his hand and began to walk out of the room.

"No," Hunk stated. There was no anger in his voice. Nor a change in volume. He said it as he would've said any other plain statement. But it was enough to get eyebrow raises from Lance and Keith. Keith motioned for Hunk to go on.

"Listen," he sighed struggling with what he had to say "You're my teammates and my friends, and I love you guys,"

"You love me more, right?" Lance interjected.

Hunk continued not answering the question.

"But sometimes I feel like I'm a buffer between you two. I'm tired of getting pulled around when one of you can't work with the other. If you ever have a fight, which is always, you expect me to take sides. I don't want to take sides I want to bake pies!"

"Hunk that sounds like a saying you would find on a poster in a middle school counselor's office," Pidge piped in from behind the castle panel. Reaching out every now and then to grab a new tool as she worked on fixing the scanners.

"Yeah, right next to an another poster with a puppy that's saying 'Anything is PAWsible' while riding a skateboard," Lance said jumping onto Pidges joke. She laughed from within the panel and stuck her hand out for a low five. Once Lance slapped it she pulled it back in and continued working.

"Guys you know what I'm trying to say!" Hunk continued. "You two are not children under the age of ten at a bowling birthday party, you don't need buffers! You don't need me to be your buffer."

"Hunk's right," Shiro said cutting Hunk off before he could make any more metaphors, noticing that Allura was becoming more and more confused at all of their earth references. "Keith, no one order Lance to work with you. He volunteered himself. It's rude of you to turn down a teammate like that. Now if you don't accept Lance's offer I'll make it a command."

Everyone on the team (besides Pidge whose head was still in the panels) exchange another glance. This was the second time today that Shiro had laid down the law to one of his paladins in front of everyone. Lance smirked to himself. Happy that he was not the only one to receive a scolding from Shiro today. He remembered that Shiro had promised to talk to Keith about his behavior the way Shiro had talked to him. Lance could not believe his luck that he was going to be there in person to watch it unfold.

" _This is hilarious,"_ He thought to himself _"This is… it's… This isn't what I promised Shiro."_ The boy sighed to himself and took a step towards Keith.

"Keith."

He didn't want to make eye contact, but upon hearing his name escape the blue paladin's mouth Keith's eyes immediately found and locked onto Lance.

"Keith," he continued, daring to take one step closer. " You're not the only one who wants to get out of the castle for a while. Let me come with you in the red lion. I promise I won't get in your way. When we are down on the planet you're in charge I'll do whatever you say."

Shiro had expected maturity in Lance after their talk. But the initiative Lance was taking in this moment was overwhelming. He made a mental note to tell the boy how proud he was of his diplomatic skills once this was all over.

" _Which will probably be soon,"_ Shiro thought _"Keith isn't going to go for this."_

Keith finally took his eyes off Lance, he looked at Shiro for half a tick, then settled on Allura for help.

"Remember what I told you," she said placing a hand on his shoulder "level-headedness, don't throw that away."

Shiro raised an eyebrow. What _had_ those two talked about during their sparring match?

"You'll do as I say?" Keith asked remaining where he stood, not daring to move closer to Lance.

"Yes sir," Lance replied

"Fine, we leave in ten."

And with that, the red paladin walked away.

"Thanks, Allura!" Lance beamed at her. Excited that because of Allura he was going to have a chance to fulfill his promise. "I don't know what you said, but it worked!"

"Yeah... good job princess," Shiro commented. On the outside, he looked and sounded the same; Totally composed as a leader should be, however, his internal monolog was quite different.

" _What the hell Keith?!"_ He thought to himself _"You don't work with Lance when I ask/practically order you to? But then Allura, says two words to you and you do it immediately?"_ He looked at Allura, trying to figure her out. He kept trying to get to know her but every time he thought he finally had a handle on her everything would shift.

"Well I'm glad that's settled," Allura concluded. "However, I do have a question. Hunk mentioned something called pie? What's a pie? It sounds interesting."

"Oh my gosh, you have never had pie before princess?" Hunk exclaimed "Pie is the best! It's a dessert of sorts. Kind of like a tart."

"Oh I would love to try one, are they hard to make?"

"Not really," Shiro shrugged. "My grandmother use to make them all the time and taught me how. If I can make one then you can too, trust me."

Lance perked up upon hearing this. Other's at the gardison may have written off Lance as an oblivious idiot but that could not have been farther from the truth. He was always calculating situations; when he saw an opportunity he went for it. He had his theory about Shiro's feelings towards Allura. Now was the perfect time to test it out.

"That's a great idea, Shiro," Lance exclaimed, this time, putting his hand on Shiro's shoulder.

"What is?" Shiro asked, confused as to what the boy was referencing.

"You should teach Allura to make your grandmother's pies. There's nothing else for either of you to do till Keith and I get back. Then once we are back you can reward our teamwork skills with delicious pie!"

"Oh, you guys really should!" Hunk said. Thinking that Lance was doing this entirely for the purpose of acquiring pie for the team. "We just got all that food from the last planet we were on, I'm sure there is enough for you two to at least you can try your hand at it."

"And you guys will get to spend time together, you know bonding!"

"I think the princess and I are sufficiently bonded," Shiro remarked trying to get out of an afternoon of cooking for Lance.

Lance rolled his eyes. _Do I have to do all the work for him?_ He thought.

"Oh come on, don't turn down the opportunity to grow _closer_ to each other. _"_

Ten minutes ago Shiro was beaming with pride at Lance. Now he was just annoyed that the boy kept insisting that he spend the afternoon cooking with Allura.

" _This kid really wants pie,"_ he thought oblivious to the fact that Lance had multiple motives.

"Shiro If you wrote down the recipes I would be happy to make it for everyone. I would love to try one of them," Allura said with a smile.

"See?" Lance exclaimed, "Allura wants to taste your pie Shiro, don't deny her that."

Shiro paused for a moment. Months of traveling with Lance had taught him that when he spoke in that tone, he was usually making some type of inappropriate comment.

" _Nah,"_ he thought _"He means nothing by it. He just really wants pie. Poor kid is probably homesick."_

"Lance are you coming?!" They heard Keith shout from the other room.

"Yeah I'm on my way, and guess what Allura and Shiro are making us pies to eat when we get back!"

Keith, not believing this for one moment, popped his head into the room.

" _Really?_ " He directed at Shiro.

Shiro thought back to what Lance had said. It was a chance to spend time with Allura, they had the ingredients, there was nothing else to do, it was a chance to spend time with Allura.

He looked at her. Her eyes were bright, her mouth was curved into a smile, there was a beautiful glow to her whole composer. But there was also a tone of harshness to her. Shiro regarded her the same way he regarded space. Space was full of wonder and beauty but could also kill you.

"Yeah, really," He said. "Apple or Blueberry?"

* * *

"Keith, can I talk to you?" Shiro asked as they stood in the Lion hanger. The oldest Paladin had made the choice that it probably would be for the best if he saw Lance and Keith off on their mission. Allura, who had instantly agreed to come with him when he offered, was talking to Lance on the other side of the hanger about the history of the planet they were going to go visit.

"Am I going to be given a lecturer for the second time today?" Keith asked.

"In my defense, I gave Lance two lectures so it's only fair."

"So this is a lecture?"

"No."

"No?"

"I was going to give you a second lecture one-half about your behavior toward Allura this morning the other half about this mission. As for the Allura part, I don't think that is necessary anymore. I believe she quite literally _knocked_ some sense into you today during your sparring match." Shiro joked.

Keith's face fell "You saw that?"

"Lance and I both saw it. You're going to want to put an ice pack on the shoulder that hit the floor first, trust me I know, if you don't you will regret it when you wake up."

"Lance saw?!"

"Speaking of Lance, it's time for my lecture on your guy's mission today. You ready?"

"Will you let me leave without hearing it?"

"No."

"Then let's get it over with."

Shiro smiled.

"Try," he said.

"Try?"

"Yes, try."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"That's the whole lecture?!" Keith exclaimed expecting some sort of annoyingly long but still sage advice from the hero he looked up to.

"That's the whole lecture,"

"Try what?"

Shiro shrugged and starting walking away towards Allura.

"That's something you are going to have to choose for yourself," he said over his shoulder.

* * *

"So you need to be careful of the volcanoes on the planet they were inactive 10,000 years ago but now, well who knows. And don't forget about the sinkholes with their magnetic pull! Ships have been lost in them before. Lance? Lance, are you listening to me?" Allura asked. But the blue paladin was too busy looking over Allura's shoulder at Keith. While Lance had volunteered himself to work with Keith that didn't mean the whole ordeal did not make him nervous.

He decided he needed a distraction and his mind went back to working on what was now his favorite past time. Figuring out what was going on between Shiro and Allura.

He knew that Shiro clearly had _something_ for the girl. But figuring out what it was and how deep it ran would have to be done once he got back. However, there was another goal Lance had that he found much more interesting. Figuring out how Allura felt about Shiro.

" _It's clear Shiro has a thing for her, whether he realizes it or not. But Allura? Well, that's the real mystery."_

"Yes, Allura I'm listening. But enough about that, you excited to make pies today?"

"Oh yes! I never got to cook much growing up and I love learning about the culture of other planets. This should be a real treat!"

" _Not what I meant,"_ Lance thought _"Let's try again,"_

"Are you excited to make pies with _Shiro_?"

"Lance I think I already answered that," Allura said, slightly confused as to why the paladin would ask her the same question twice.

"I mean this is the first time you and Shiro have really hung out before," Lance said smoothly with a sort of sing-song-ish tone to his voice. He practically glowed.

The boy was playing matchmaker and he was in his element.

"Hung out?" Allura asked not understanding this earth slang term.

"Like to spend time together," He paused "... Alone,"

"Oh Shiro and I have spent time alone together before," The princess said as if it was nothing.

A feeling that was half excitement half bewilderment grew within Lance.

"You have?!" He exclaimed.

"Yes, we spend time together talking about the castle, and the lions, and battle plans. Stuff like that."

Lances excitement fell.

"Hanging out is different, Allura. What you just described? That's work. When people hang out they do a fun activity or just talk about whatever. Their favorite TV shows, music, their families, _who they fancy,_ " Lance enunciated these last words trying to see if they would get a readable reaction out of her, "When you hang out you enjoy the others company."

"Oh," She said.

Shiro had never asked her to "hang out" before as Lance had described. But there were times that their conversation about the war, their "work" according to Lance, would naturally fade into something different.

Long talks about their home worlds, families, once about favorite books. But that one was difficult considering that they were from to different cultures. But they had fun explaining the plots of the books to each other. She remembered that Shiro's favorite book was called _To Kill a Mocking Bird._ Only It was not about a Bird. He had told her that it was about truth, and justice, and understanding and bravery. Also, something about a ham but Allura did not understand that part.

She had deeply enjoyed his company during those moments. She figured that Shiro felt the same way, but she could never be sure. According to Lance then she and the black paladin had indeed hung out before.

"No, Lance I can't saw we ever have," She told him. Deciding that maybe it would be best to keep that information private from Lance. There was something in his voice that made Allura think that he was searching for something. For what exactly she was still unsure.

But there was a smile on her face. A smile that only occurs when one is thinking of the person they hold within the deepest fondness. This was not as much evidence as Lance had on Shiro, but that smile was enough to encourage his search.

"Ready to go?" Keith asked Lance as he began to climb into the red lion.

"Whenever you are," He said turning around to follow after him "I hope you and Shiro have a good time," he said soft enough for only Allura to hear. Then he walked into the red lion, eager to hear everything from her once he got back.

She turned her head to Shiro who was now standing next to her watching the red lion take off.

"Do you think they will be okay?" She asked

Shiro nodded "As long as they try. Hey, what did you say to Keith during your sparring match today? You seemed to be able to get through to him when I couldn't. To be honest, I'm quite in awe, what's your secret?"

Allura laughed, "I'll tell you about it when we hang out."

* * *

Lance stood behind Keith's chair in the red lion not sure if he should say something or not. He wanted this mission to go well, mostly to prove himself to Shiro, but there were other reasons. Something Shiro had said about Keith and him being great together stuck with Lance.

"So are you just going to stand there or are you going to say something?" Keith said out of the blue, startling Lance as they piloted through the planet's cloudy atmosphere.

"Um, well you're the leader on this mission. What do you want me to say?"

"How about we start with the real reason why you volunteered to come?"

Lance shrugged "Pidge was too busy, Hunk didn't want to go, and I thought Shiro could use some _alone time_ with Allura." He winked "Hey don't those clouds look a little dark to you?"

"Yeah...they do,"

"And if we have already accelerated through the atmosphere shouldn't we be out of the clouds,"

Keith focused on the cloud around them examining it.

"That's because we are not in the clouds Lance, this is ash."

Something began to pelt the windshield of the red lion. The sound reminded him of hail on his car back home. Only this wasn't hail.

"Rocks?"

" _Lance,"_ Keith said so sternly it could have been mistaken for an impression of Shiro "Did Allura say anything about there being volcanoes on this planet?"

"Not that I can recall,"

The ash around them grew darker and the rocks hitting the lion became bigger.

" _Lance,"_

"Okay, she _may_ have mentioned this planet having volcanoes but not _active ones!_ I did not think it was going to be an issue."

"Yeah, dumbass the volcanoes were inactive 10,000 years ago. 10,000 years is enough time to set one off!" Keith said the volume of his voice growing. "Did you not learn that in basic earth science? Or where you to busy _crashing the flight simulator_?!"

"Okay, seriously _bruh_ , what is your deal?!" Lance exclaimed stepping in front of Kieth's chair blocking his forward view.

"Lance you need to move I can't see!"

"We are in an ash cloud Keith that's kind of the point."

"Lance I swear to-"

But Keith never got to finish his sentence, something had hit the red lion and had hit it _hard._

Then they were falling.

No matter how hard Keith tried to regain control of the red lion they kept falling.

Farther and Farther down to the planet.

Not knowing what awaited them below.

* * *

 **Yeah okay, I make these nerds smile at each other much more than normal people smile.**

 **Thank you so much for reading I really hope you liked it!**

 **I'm not haveing a bad time or anything but I have to start packing back up for college and am a little stressed out so reviews on this chapter would be greatly appreciated they fill my heart with love (if you read the A/N tell me your favorite type of pie at the end of your review) and sunshine wich is something I could use right now. (Even if your review is just a smiley face or the lyrics to never gonna give you up, I will love it!)**

 **Next chapter is going to be the "Bonding" chapter so be ready for some cute fangirl moments.**

 **Y'all are the best fandom!**

 **-VF**


	4. First Aid and a Kiss

**A/N**

 **This update took a little longer. But it's worth it I promise. Bring on all the cute feels.**

 **Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who reviewed you guys are so amazingly perfect.**

 **I hope you love this chapter! (It's extra long!)**

* * *

"We had to make a few substitutions but I think we have everything we need to make the pie. Hopefully, none of these ingredients, when mixed together, will explode or give us food poisoning," Shiro said to Allura as they stood alone in the Castle kitchen. The counter top covered in alien food that when looked at closely did resemble bakery ingredients.

Allura nodded as she pulled her beautiful silver hair up into a ponytail. Shiro was always mesmerized by Allura's hair both the beauty and the physics of it. There was just so _much_ of it! And she always managed to make it look stunning.

When Shiro turned to see her was taken slightly aback. He had only ever seen it Allura's hair down or in a tight bun. There was something about seeing her hair this way that made her look informal, casual even. While the rest of her still looked absolutely cosmic and royal to Shiro, her hair reminded him of how average human girls back home looked.

This made the oldest lion warrior smile. If he was constantly stressed out over the future of Voltron and the war, he could only imagine how Allura felt. He was happy that she would get to spend one afternoon just being average; having nothing to worry about besides wither or not Lance would like the pies he tricked them into making.

"So what's the first step?… " Allura looked up from the ingredients to catch the happy look on Shiro's face "Why are you smiling?"

Shiro grew embarrassed by her accusations. Had he really been smiling that much? Enough for her to notice?

"Um, no reason, Princess," he stumbled through his words. "I just, well,…" he paused to regain himself . "I'm happy to be doing this with you. I think it will be a nice break."

Allura's cheeks flushed. But it had been so long since he had seen, let alone made, another girl blush that Shiro could not be sure.

"I'm happy you agreed to do it with me! … Bake pies I mean!" Allura blurted out the last part after remembering what Lance had taught her about the inappropriate connotations certain words and common phrasing carried on Earth.

"Anyway!" She said trying to not show how flustered she had become, "I wonder how Lance and Keith are doing?"

"Yeah, they should have reached the planet's surface by now…"

* * *

The crash sent shockwaves through the red lion that violently tossed the two boys around.

Both of them swore in unison until the shock settled down. The lion was no longer falling, nothing seemed to be impedingly wrong, and above all they were alive.

Lance, who was lying on the floor in the back of the red lion slowly pushed himself up. He carefully did his best to check himself for injuries, besides a few bruises he was fine.

"Well, I'm okay, no thanks to you! Seriously, Keith, you're meant to be the greatest pilot of our age and you crash us into the ground!"

He waited for the red paladin's reply but none came.

"Kieth?" he said looking around the cockpit for him, Lance's hand went to his face when he saw him. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no."

In the crash Keith's helmet had fallen off, he had landed on the front floor of the red lion after hitting his head on the control panel. He laid there now and was bleeding slightly.

Lance quickly stumbled across the floor , cursing softly to himself, kneeled down and flipped Keith over.

He was relieved that there was not as much blood as he thought there was. Lance smoothly ran two fingers across Keith's face, he exhaled in relief when he found that the bleeding was coming from a gash on Keith's cheek. There was no major threat of brain damage.

"Keith, can you hear me?"

Nothing.

Panic began to rise in the blue paladin.

Keith's breathing was so shallow that through his panic Lance couldn't tell if he was imaging it or not.

"Oh come on Keith," he pleaded "You've been through worse, don't let this be the thing that kills you! Of course, you would die on the mission I went on with you to show Shiro I could be a good team member, you _would_ do that just to spite me!"

Despite his frustration, he said all of this as he took off his helmet lowering his left ear to Keith's chest to listen for a heartbeat.

The thumping of Keith's heart reminded Lance of a hummingbird; impossibly unexplainably fast.

"Not dead!" Lance exclaimed in relief "Not dead is good, okay, okay okay, first aid! You need first aid!"

Then, as if the red lion had heard him, a small panel opened up across the cockpit that reviled a cabinet filled with medical supplies.

"Really Red?" Lance said to the lion, convinced it was listening. "Your pilot is dying and you wait until now to show me the medical supplies?!"

The cabinet door snapped shut.

Lance held his mouth open in shock _The lion had heard him._

"Wow Allura was right, Red you are temperamental, but come on you don't want Keith to die right? I know the guy sucks but he's the best pilot I've ever seen, you'll never have someone better than him."

The cabinet door opened once more, however, this time much slower.

" _Blue would never do this to me,"_ he thought as he rummaged through the cabinet for supplies.

Lance did all that he could and after a while, he had stopped the bleeding and had bandages over the gash on the other boy's face. When Keith flipped his eyes open Lance almost cried in relief.

" _He's not dead, he's responsive, so he probably won't die, he's not in a coma, so he probably won't die,"_ He thought.

"Keith, can you hear me?"

"Lance? Are… are you okay… are you hurt?"

Lance did his best to fight back tears, Keith was possibly dying and he still showed concern for someone else. Maybe he was not so bad after all.

"I'm fine Kieth, I'm not hurt at all,"

"Good!"

Lance never saw it coming. Keith swung his right arm up and quite forcefully punched Lance in the eye.

"OW!" he screamed backing away from him "What the hell was that for?! I just saved your life!"

"My life would not have needed saving if you hadn't caused us to crash!"

"You are blaming me for this?!"

"Umm, yeah I think I am," Kieth said slowly standing up leaning against the control panel for balance. "Let's review, you forgot to tell me about the volcano's and then when we got caught up in one you blocked my vision!"

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSE TO KNOW THE VOLCANO WAS ACTIVE! And oh poor you, the greatest pilot of the 21 first century can't fly himself through an ash cloud. I was not the one who lost control of his Lion!"

Keith just rolled his eyes and sat back into the pilot's chair. He was ready to fly out of there as quick as possible but the red lion was unresponsive.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Lance jeered "Let's go!"

"Shut up! I'm trying!"

But no matter what he did the lion just stayed there, as if someone had turned it off.

"Something's wrong," Keith said frustratedly "Stay here, I'm going to get out and see if I can figure out what's going on."

"Bruh," Lanced commented sliding his back down the wall till his body reached the floor in a dejected manner. "Don't you realize where we crashed, haven't you looked out the window?"

Reluctantly Keith did, what he saw caused his spirits to drop.

They were in a pit of some sort, miles down from the surface. The opening of the pit showed the daytime sky, lots of light shined down so they were not in darkness. But there was no way they could safely leave the Lion, there was no solid land to stand on. If they left they would only get pulled deeper into the pit.

"Magnetic Sinkhole," Lance commented from the floor. "Allura told me about them, yeah that's right I was listening. They are like normal sink holes on earth only these have a strong magnetic pull, the can swallow whole ships. That's probably why red is not working. The magnetic pull is messing with it."

"Well, I guess we need to call Shiro…"

"No!" Lance exclaimed, "Don't do that!"

"Why not?"

" _Because Shiro is spending time with Allura,"_ Lance thought _"The guy needs a break for eff sake! Not to mention all the effort I put into getting them some alone time."_

However, Lance did not want Kieth, or anyone for that matter, knowing that was the truth. He still was unsure of what Shiro and Allura's true feelings were so it seemed wrong to get the others involved this early on. Also, he liked being the only one of the team knowing that something was going on between them.

"Because… well… because Shiro will be disappointed! Yeah, that's it! Do you really want to be the one to call Shiro and tell him we failed the mission? It's like we didn't even try!"

"Try." Kieth nodded remembering Shiro's advice, maybe this was what he meant? There was no way to be sure. "Okay let's 'try' what do you suggest?"

"Allura said that the magnetic pull of these sink holes works on a timer, kind of. That's what makes them such a hazard you can't really tell when they are going to go off or not. However, Allura said their pull usually runs for an hour or so, shuts off, then starts back up."

"So you're saying we just wait it out?"

Lance nodded. "Even if the others came and got us it would be no good, they would get stuck too. So let's just wait, maybe the pull will stop and then we can fly out. After a while, if it is not working then we can call Shiro. Less embarrassing to call him after being gone for and hour then after being gone for ten minutes."

"What do we do when we wait?"

"I mean… we could, you know, _talk."_

* * *

Soon the entire kitchen was a mess. Filled with pie crust, fillings, and laughter. After burning the first two pies Shiro and Allura finally had a handle on what the were doing and fell into a happy rhythm. They soon realized they had taken out more ingredients than they needed and made the choice to just make as many pies until they ran out.

This allowed them to try different pie fillings and prolong their time with each other.

Shiro tried to remember the last time he felt this comfortable and relaxed. The conversation between him and Allura just flowed so naturally, there was never an awkward silence or a scramble for new topics to talk about. She listened to him and showed genuine interest in what he had to say. He found himself at moments slowing down. Rolling the dough slower, mixing the batter slower, waiting a while to put the pies in the oven. Anything to keep the afternoon going even if only for a few more minutes.

He looked at Allura, her hands and face were covered in flour. She had managed to get blue and red berry juice on her forehead and in her hair. She was smiling and laughing as she poured together the wet and dry ingredients and they splashed over the counter.

She had messed up but instead of being upset as she normally was when she did something other than flawless she found it all funny. Seeing her like this; so happy, so relaxed, not being so hard on herself for once gave Shiro a rush of some sort.

He couldn't pin the feeling really, he just knew he wanted to keep looking at her like this. He wanted to keep feeling like this. There was something good about this feeling, something warm.

"So your name isn't really Shiro?" Allura asked, continuing their conversation.

"It's not," he said moving next to her. He took some pie crust dough and began rolling it out. "Takashi is my real name technically. Shiro comes from my last name, Shirogane."

"So why don't the others call you Takashi?"

Shiro felt the rush again.

It was so long since he had heard someone else says his name. And the way Allura said it just sounded nice. She said it with such care as if it was something very important, very fragile; like she was trying to use her voice to both protect and admire it.

"I mean they could, they all know my first name is Takashi but everyone at the Gardison knew me as Shiro. It's common to address each other by last name there. Pretty much the only people who call me Takashi are family members. But I'm pretty indifferent, to be honest."

"So if the other paladins called you Takashi you wouldn't mind?"

Shiro's cheeks felt warm upon hearing her say his name again, he hoped the white flour covered up any color they gave off.

"As long as they pronounce it right, yeah I don't mind."

"And… If I did?" there was a slight coyness to her as she asked this.

He held her gaze, and he was blushing, god was he blushing. He cursed himself for doing so, there was no way she could _not_ tell that he was blushing he thought. But there was just something about the way she asked so kindly, how she _wanted_ to call him Takashi, how she just stood there in front of him covered in flour talking to him as if they were friends and not warriors. He had to hold himself back from exclaiming yes, from asking her to exclusively call him by his first name just so he could hear it again.

Shiro did not, however, hold himself back from slipping his hand into hers, (their hand's were right next to each other now brushing slightly every now and then as they worked) and holding it up to his lips.

"I would be honored Princess Allura,"

He then kissed her hand in the courtly love fashion.

The blushing on Allura's face was impossible to ignore.

The look they shared only lasted a few ticks, but it was everything. They stared at each other as if they were looking at the only thing they could ever want.

But quickly upon realizing what had happened and remembering who they were the embarrassment had set in.

" _Why the hell did I do that?"_ Shiro thought to himself frantically trying to find a way to play it off. He saw the bag of flour and grabbed it.

Shiro was unsure of what was more stupid what he had done, or what he was going to do.

Allura was still standing there, still dumbfounded by his actions, an embarrassed look was on her face that only made Shiro feel worse with every passing moment. When the handful of flour Shiro threw at her hit her face she closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. Confused as to what had happened.

"You tricked me!" She exclaimed opening her eyes whipping the flour off her face. "You only did that to stun and confuse your enemy so you could go in for the attack!" Allura laughed as she said this and reach for another bag of flour.

Shiro sighed in relief, he was able to play off his actions as a joke, a trick. Instead of… of… he wasn't sure what it was. But he was sure he could never let Allura know.

"They taught us well at the Gardison, you know the first rule of combat-"

But Shiro was caught off as flour from Allura's hand hit him.

He smirked at her.

"You really wanna do this Allura?"

"You started it _Takashi._ "

And with that, Allura won. Not the flour battle (which was about to commence) but Allura had completely defeated Takashi Shirgonae. He just didn't know it yet.

* * *

"Talk?" Keith asked

Lance nodded from across the floor.

"About what?"

"Whatever you want, I think we should get to know each other better."

Keith rolled his eyes not believing for a moment that Lance was being sincere. Despite his distrust, a feeling of excitement began to kindle at the possibility of Lance truly being interested in him.

" _Not interested in_ _ **that**_ _way!"_ Keith protested against no one in his mind.

"Ask me a question!" Lance exclaimed cutting into Keiths internal arguing.

"How about we start with why you volunteered to come with me despite the fact that you hate me?" Keith blurted out. He was surprised that the words had actually escaped his mouth. But he couldn't help it. He just didn't trust Lance. Everyone always had a motivation for something and Lance were not excluded from that.

Keith was trying to work out what Lance wanted to gain; one reason, a hope really, keep knocking in the back of his head.

" _What if he does want to get to know me? What if he volunteered because…"_

No.

Keith pushed it out of his mind.

 _"Lance is a self-centered, egotistical,l competitive fool, even if he did-_ _ **which he doesn't-**_ _you wouldn't want that."_

"I told you, I went because no one else wanted to go." Lance grounded.

"Bullshit," The red palidion responded. "That's not the reason… after the crash when you were freaking out and I was bleeding… you said something about Shiro?"

Lance's mouth hung open a little "You heard that?! I thought you were passed out!"

"I only heard bits and pieces. Including the part where you said, I was the best piolet you've ever seen."

Keith swore to god that he saw Lance blush.

"You were in shock, you don't know what you heard."

Keith shrugged and smirked. For once, he had the upper hand on Lance.

"Okay fine! I came on this trip because of Shiro…"

Keith raised an eyebrow. Eager to hear what Shiro had lectured Lance on.

"He said that I need to start taking everything more seriously, that I need to try to be a better teammate. That I need to be more respectable to everyone… including you. Shiro thinks that you and I could be really good partners. And I don't think he's just saying that to trick us into working together. I think he actually thinks that you can me could be amazing together… as teammates! And well…"

Lance took a breath, Keith held his.

"I believe him. Or I did! Until you yelled at me, crashed the lion, and then gave me a black eye. But yeah Keith, that's why I came. Shiro thinks I could be a better paladin so I had to at least try. I mean it's _Shiro_ for frick's sake! He's the best of the best of the best! When he says he believes in you, you gotta at least _try!"_

There it was again. Lance echoing Shiro's lecture. _Try._ But try what? Lance clearly seemed to have it figured out. _And_ he had the confidence knowing that Shiro believed in him. Keith grew jealous of Lance, he would never say it but he would do a lot of things to have validation like that from someone so great.

" _Allura!_ " a guilty part of him called out, " _Allura did just that."_

And it was true Keith realized. Allura had validated him the same way Shiro had validated Lance. Just because she was not the hero he grew up admiring didn't mean her faith in him was worth any less. Keith's jealousy washed away and was replaced with a warm respect for Allura.

" _Allura didn't have anything to gain from doing that."_ He thought. _"So maybe… not everyone is in this world for themselves… maybe Lance is like Allura…"_

Keith was still unsure of what Shiro wanted him to try but he was going to attempt it. Once more. If not for Shiro, for Allura.

"Tell me about your mom," Keith asked startling Lance. "You said I could ask you anything."

Lance laughed softly and smiled "That I did! My mom is the best. Like I know it's dorky or whatever for guys to be close to their moms, but my mom is so awesome I don't care. I'm from a really big family and have a lot of brothers and sisters but she always managed to make all of us feel special. What about your mom?"

Keith paused, his eyes fell to the floor his shoulders slumped inwards.

"Come on!" Lance jeered "You ask a question I get to ask one!"

"It's not that, it's just I don't really remember her much. Or my dad for that matter… I don't want to talk about it but my family is not really in the picture."

"Oh," Lance said softly "Is that why you were living alone in that shack? With just a sofa and a table made of cinder bricks?"

Keith nodded.

The Silence of the red lion seemed to grow louder between the two boys. Lance was never close to Keith but now he felt farther away than ever.

"I'm… I mean… I thought you lived like that because you were minimalist or because you liked DIY project or something… not because you had-"

"Nothing?" Keith finished. He knew that's what Lance was going to say, he had thought it himself time and time before.

Lance sheepishly nodded. Embarrassed to have been called out.

"It's not like I was always on my own. I had the Gardision… till I got kicked out, now I guess I have-"

"Don't say that!" Lance's voice cut in carrying an incredibly serious tone. "You don't have nothing. You are a Paladin Warrior! You have a room at the castle, you have a magical flying lion for eff sake. You have team Voltron, you have Allura, you have me."

Lance's words caused Keith to lose his breath. His heart accelerated. He was not quite sure how to respond.

Luckily Lance did this for him.

"New question, tell me about the worst date you have ever been on."

This got a rare laugh out of Keith.

"Oh man it's pretty embarrassing,"

"Dude, we are in space, the most people I could tell is like five."

 _Try._

"Okay, so there was this girl at the gardison. Flora Lonun."

"Yeah I remember Flora, I think she did military intelligence or something?"

"Yeah, she was super smart like that. Which is ironic because I guess she had a crush on me, despite the fact that I'm not really interested in people of her gender. Honestly, I don't blame her for not knowing, most people didn't."

"I didn't" Lance commented softly.

Keith rolled his eyes and continued.

"Well she asked me to hang out and I said yes thinking nothing of it. It turns out it was like, _a date_. I didn't realize it till halfway through. I made up excuses and left early… I avoided her the rest of the year."

Lance bursted out laughing. The elated sound of his voice filled the room and soon Keith joined him. If anyone had seen the boys they would have sworn they had gone mad.

"I can't…" Lance said between laughs "Oh god I would pay money to have seen that… that _is_ something that would happen to you,"

"So what's yours? I would love to hear about the romantic downfalls of the flirt king."

"Honestly, I can't pick one. I have been on so many bad dates, it's hard to choose. You're lucky, only liking guys. Going on dates with guys and girls has given me twice the opportunity to romantically embarrassed me. I probably have a handful of people at the gardison awkwardly avoiding me the way you did Flora."

And they continued just like that; asking questions, sharing stories, laughing.

A whole extra twenty minutes passed before they realized that the magnetic pull of the sinkhole had stopped and that the red lion had turned back on.

* * *

The kitchen was a mess. Everything was covered in flour. The walls and floor were stained with the juice of thrown berries. Bags of sugar and other ingredients had spilled all over the counter.

Amidst the chaos twenty pies (most of them not burnt) rested peacefully on a cooling rack.

Below them, Allura and Shiro sat on the kitchen floor their backs leaning against the base of the counter. Allura mentally noted how physically _close_ they were. Their arms touched. Well, only their shoulder did really. But this was enough for Allura.

Their hands lay stretched out forward, only centimeters away from each other, practically touching. If one wanted to hold the others hand now would be the time to do so. Their hands were just _there,_ Allura observed. One could quite easily smoothly slip their hand into the others. It would be so quick, so natural. No awkward reaching across a great distance to try to take hold of the other. The lack of distance made it easy, it even seemed to call for it.

And Allura wanted to, oh did she want to. She was mature enough to admit it, she was drawn to Shiro. Who wouldn't be? He was a good leader, brave, strong, and brought out the best in everyone. She was excited to see him every day, to talk to him, to run new ideas by him. Allura knew she liked being around him. She never thought much of it honestly.

But now she didn't just want to be around Shiro, she wanted to be close to him. He was intoxicating to her. Quality time was no longer enough, she wanted physical touch, she wanted to give him words of affirmation, she wanted to know what was happening.

" _You are drawn to him, not attracted."_ Allura reasoned with herself _"I mean it's, Shiro. He's the closest thing you have to a best friend. It's normal to feel this way about a friend. He's one of the Paladin warriors. This is all in good friendship."  
_

Still, Allura wished Shiro would take her hand. The same way he did earlier that afternoon. It had shocked but also deeply pleased her. She would never admit it but part of her grew sad when she realized that he only did it was a way to distract her. She had regarded that moment as beautiful, till she realized it was a joke.

" _I mean if he was serious it would have been awkward,"_ She thought " _but maybe not entirely bad."  
_

She grew sad. She had wanted it to be real.

"I know the right thing to do would be to clean this up ourselves," Shiro commented. Allura tilted her head up to look at him as he talked. She liked how soft his eyes where they were easy to look into. She felt like she could hold his gaze forever.

"However, I think we could find a way to get Lance and Keith to do it for us once they get back," he finished.

"I'm sure we could find a way to convince them it's part of their training," she nudged his arm.

"They will think we trashed the place just to punish them," he nudged her back. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Allura quickly dropped her gaze. Had she been staring?

"All of your hair is white now due to the flour, it's quite comical." She laughed.

"Well yours looks like you have pink highlights from the berry juice,"

"Yeah, who thought it would be a good idea to bring berry's into the battle?"

"In my defense, I was losing."

Their hands were closer now if that was even possible. The backs of their floured cover hands brushed against each other softly.

"I think I'm going to save it," Allura said changing subjects.

"Save what?"

"Your first name. It's important, I'm going to save it for when it's important."

Shiro wanted to tell her that whenever they were together was important to him. But ever since he had foolishly kissed her hand Shiro was now painfully aware of all his actions around Allura. He couldn't afford for whatever had overcome him to happen again.

He liked this, god he loved it. Just sitting on the floor of a torn up kitchen with Allura. Their arms touching, him going between almost slipping his hand into her's but then coming to his senses at the last moment. He felt like he was breathing after holding his breath underwater for a long time.

Things were good.

He was happy.

Allura's purple earrings lit up. Keith's voice cut in.

"Hey everyone sorry we were gone so long, we are on our way back now. We think we found something."

"Great work you two!" Allura beamed.

Shiro and she exchanged a smile. The mission had been a success. Lance and Keith had made them proud.

"Also when you see Lance's black eye don't freak out."

"WHAT?!" Both of them exclaimed in unison.

But Keith had cut off the communication feed.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Thank you for reading! I hope you liked this one and that you found it cute. Once again I always love to hear what you think! I hope you think it was worth the wait.**

 **You guys are the BEST!**

 **VF**


	5. Flour and Ice Packs

**A/N**

 **Hi guys!**

 **This chapter is a tad on the short side. The story is now transitioning to "Act two" if you will and this is the short transition chapter to there.**

 **Also this chapter instead of being Shiro/Allura & Lance/Keith focused. It focuses on Shallura and the friendship between Lance and Allura. **

**it's a tad different than the other chapters so I hope you like it!**

 **Also, who is excited for Shallura week starting this Sunday?!**

* * *

Shiro wether he liked to admit it or not was worried about the state he would find his two Paladins in when they got back.

"Do you think they had a run in with the Galra? Or possibly upset the planet's native?" Shiro inquired as Allura and he walked to the lion hanger with a quickening pace.

"I'm more concerned about what they found as opposed to what gave Lance the black eye."

"You're right, and hey we knew this mission couldn't be perfect. One black eye is not so bad, right?"

"Right!" Allura agreed as they walked into the hanger Lance and Keith coming into view "No so-"

The sight before Shiro and Allura was much worse than expected. Lance's black eye was multiple hues of purple. Whomever had hit him had hit him _hard_. Shiro could tell the injury was no accident the enter eye was bruised and swelling. While Lance's eye was more sickening than expected at least they had _known_ to expect it.

The already bleed through bandages on Keith's face, however. Where a nice surprise.

" _Keith_ ," Allura said breathlessly being the first to react to the boy's injury. She rushed towards him and began assessing his injury. Despite his protests Allura placed a cool (and forcefully) hand on the boys face to get a better look at the wound.

"Are you okay? Are both of you okay?"

"Yes, Allura we're fine," Lance insisted placing a hand on Keith's shoulder. Which was true for Lance but not so true for Keith.

Lance had quickly recovered from the crash, the black eye Keith had given him hurt but caused real damage. Keith however, had taken more of a hit during the crash. Lance had insisted that they should check for a concussion but Keith refused.

"How did this happen?" Allura asked softly her voice full of concern.

The boys exchanged a look refusing to answer.

Allura took her had off Keith's face and took a breath in.

"I asked you _how did this happen?!"_ Allura demand this time. Her voice sharp and serious. Lance and Hunk joked every now and then that Allura was like their mom but that was far from the truth. Allura was kind, but she had a great capacity to be harsh as well. She was no-nonsense when it came to missions and did not care if she came off as cold or intense.

"Um, Shiro?" Keith asked. Moving his head to look behind Allura at where the older paladin stood a few feet back.

Allura turned around to look at him. He was still covered entirely in flour, from their battle earlier that afternoon. But it was the look on his face that struck everyone as odd.

He was looking upward towards the ceiling as if he was questioning it. Keith racked his brain for the correct word to describe his face. Bewilderment was definitely one, but also defeat. Keith had no idea who he was more afraid of in that moment. Angry Allura, or mixed emotion Shiro.

"I can't, flour covered," he said his eyes flicking back and forth between the boy's injuries. "I am honestly so shocked and fed up that I just don't know how to process or react to this."

The look on his face showed it to. There was no anger or frustration. Just slight confusion. He had the same look on his face as someone who had just dropped a very expensive vase shattering it. He did not know what to do.

"Shiro?" Allura placed a flour-covered hand on his arm.

" _Why are they covered in flour?!"_ Lance thought to himself. But he pushed his romantic detective work out of his mind for the time being.

"Allura," he said her name sweet and tenderly "Please take this one because I just can't. When it comes to these two I am spent."

She nodded. Slightly concerned about Shiro being out of commission for the time being.

"I am only going to ask you once more, _what happened."_

"Lance saved me!" Keith blurted out. He would punch anyone who suggested it but angry Alllura scared him. "The volcanoes were active, we got caught up in the ash, then got pulled into the magnetic sink hole, I lost control of the red lion and we crashed. When I fell forward I hit my head on the control and got the gash on my face. Lance gave me first aid."

Allura looked at Shiro to see if he was ready to add input.

He wasn't.

"If this is true then how did Lance get a black eye?"

Keith began to answer but Lance cut him off.

"I hit myself in the face, during the crash! I fell and tried to break my fall with my hand and punched my eye in the process,"

This lie was so ridiculous it got a response from Shiro.

"You punched, _your own face?"_

Lance nodded with a big goofy smile. "Yeah man, not enough ladies were hitting on me here in space so I figured I may as well try hitting on myself. Anyway everything it fine. Keith and I are bros now. Our injuries are from the crash. We didn't get into a battle with anyone or anything."

"Or with each other?" Allura asked.

"No princess," Lance said smoothly "No diplomatic conflict resolution needed here Keith and I got along great, _and_ completed the mission. Our injuries are from the crash nothing else."

"Is this true Keith?" Allura raised an eyebrow. Keith noted how mom like she sounded.

"It's true," Keith responded not meeting Allura's eyes.

"Shiro?" she asked wanting to see if he accepted any of this.

"I believe them. At this point, I'll buy whatever they are selling. Now how about you tell us what you found."

"How about you tell us why you two are covered in flour?" Lance asked raising an eyebrow.

"How about the boys go to the medical bay first?" Allura stated getting the final word in.

* * *

'"Ow!" Lance shouted out as Allura placed an ice pack on his black eye a little too forcefully. "Geez Allura I know you are a real life wonder woman and all that but maybe you could be a tad more gentle when giving first aid."

"I don't know who 'wonder woman' is but maybe you should strive to be more like her." Allura sharply replied removing the ice pack and placing it in Lance's hand.

Lance sat on a cot at the end of the medical bay Allura had volunteered to oversee his medical attention. On the complete another side of the room, safely out of earshot, where Keith and Shiro.

Shiro and Allura had decided to split the boys up so they could try to figure out what had truthfully happened on their mission.

However being alone with Allura and getting to talk to her about truth and what had happened this afternoon was exactly what Lance wanted.

"You know Lance," Allura began as she sat on the adjacent cot crossing her legs facing the blue paladin "Shiro may be so overwhelmed that he believes your story. But I don't. Whether it's a good idea or not I put so much faith in you that I refuse to accept you would actually punch your own face."

"Wow princess you are really mastering the art of backhanded compliments," Lance groaned as he placed the ice pack on his face once more, wincing as the cold pack stung his skin. "It's funny you think Keith and I are lying,"

"Oh?" she asked dryly "And why is that?"

"Because I think you're lying about why you and Shiro are covered in flour. You don't believe I got this black eye as an accident? That's fine. I don't believe you two are a total mess because you 'mixed the batter wrong'. I believe we are at an impasse."

Allura smirked. Lance was clever enough to work her into a corner. She felt almost proud.

"Tell me how you got your black eye."

"Tell me what happened on your date with Shiro."

"It wasn't a date," the pitch of her voice fell into a whisper. There was no possible way Shiro could hear them from the other side of the room. But Allura would take no risks.

"You wish it was," Lance offered.

"Shiro is my friend," Allura said firmly hoping to end the conversation. But as she did this Lance saw that her cheeks grew pink underneath the flour.

"Yeah, your _really good looking and really attractive_ friend!"

"Lance!" she exclaimed "That is not appropriate. Besides this has nothing to do with Shiro. Tell me what happened on your mission."

"Allura _come on,_ just stop thinking about work for like five minutes. It won't hurt you! Now please, you expect me to believe you haven't at least registered in your mind that Shiro is good looking?"

Allura's pulse increased. If Keith had been the one to give Lance the black eye she did not blame him. His words cut into her.

Because _of course_ , she had noted that Shiro was handsome. Who wouldn't? She thought that the first time she saw him. She had pushed that to the back of her head. It meant nothing. But lately, she had found herself thinking of it more. Found that she would allow her eyes to linger more. Found that when he was in the room she never wanted to look away.

When this would happen before on her homeworld she could tell others. Her mom, her friends, other family members. If she had met Shiro 10,000 years ago nothing would have stopped her from telling her closest confidence that she found him handsome and dashing, possibly even... hot. But that was a human term Lance had taught her; she was not sure if she was using it right.

Now however she had no one she could talk to about how she viewed Shiro. It wouldn't be appropriate. It could easily get back to Shiro. She had to keep it inside. But being able to tell Lance, was so tempting. Keeping it all in was hard, at times she felt like a hole was being burnt through her. She wanted to enjoy the pleasure of frivolous talk once more.

"Lance I am a princess."

He nodded.

"And I have a very serious job to do with the war and being the overseer of Voltron."

He nodded once more.

"I can't have other team members finding out information that may be embarrassing or distracting. Do you understand,"

"Allura… are you asking me if I can keep a secret?"

It was her turn to nod.

"Listen Princess I know I can be more… carefree… then other members of our team. But you're my friend Allura if there is anything you want to talk about in private. I won't share it with anyone. I promise."

The Blue paladin held out the pinkie finger of his right hand. Allura was unsure of what this action meant.

"It's a pinky swear," he explained. "You wrap your finger around mine and whatever I promise I can't break. I mean like I could. It's not magic or anything but I take mine pretty seriously. Never broke one in my life and if I did I would feel pretty awful."

Slowly Allura raised her hand and wrapped her pinky around Lance's. Of all the odd earth practices she had learned from the paladins, this was one of her favorites.

"You won't tell?" she asked.

"Allura we pinky swore," Lance placed his free hand over his heart.

She sighed. Lance truly was the Blue paladin.

"Okay well. It would not be a total lie to admit that I have noticed the visual appeal of Shiro."

Lance looked at her with an annoyed face. Why did she always have to be so formal?

"Really Allura? It sounds like you are doing paperwork, not talking about a boy."

"Fine, Shiro is cute, good looking, handsome, I enjoy looking at him. It's almost annoying." She hated to admit it but it felt good being honest about her feelings to another person. Not that she had feelings for Shiro.

Lance's face was entirely lit up with a warm smile. Allura looked so happy when she talked about Shiro. It was hard not to feel happy for her.

"So how did you two get covered in flour," he asked mischievously "Did you two… you know," He took his two hands and Laced his fingers together.

Allura hit him on the shoulder.

"No, we did not!"

"Sooo, nothing happened?"

Allura was about to respond with a firm no. But she flashed back to when she asked if she could call him Takashi. How he took her hand so sweetly and kissed it, the way he looked at her burned in her memory.

It was a joke. It meant nothing. Yet she couldn't get over it. She wanted to run it by Lance but… that would be too far.

"Allura?" he asked, he read her eyes and had her figured out "oh, Allura I think something did happen."

She nodded and proceeded to tell Lance the story in a hushed tone.

"And that's how we got covered in flour," she concluded.

"He kissed you?!"

"On the hand, it didn't count. It was not a real kiss mind you. He did it as a joke. A way to distract me."

"Or," Lance offered "He did it honestly and then got afraid and threw flour at you as a cover up."

Allura laughed at this ridiculous statement. Shiro would never do such a thing. Or would he.

"Allura, Shiro likes you."

"Did he say something?"

"Well, no not exactly but-"

"Then there is no way you could possibly know that."

"Let me ask you this Allura, do you want him to like you?"

Allura responded by looking away. She was not ready to say the truth but did not want to lie to Lance.

Lance despite the bruises on his face smiled widely through the pain. He was proud of himself. His work was paying off.

"This is so exciting!" he said more to himself than Allura "You _like_ Shiro. Like I had my suspicions but I didn't _know_ know. But oh my gosh Allura, Shiro is the best you two are going to be so good together-"

"I don't like Shiro," she hissed sharply.

"Sure," he rolled his eyes still smiling.

"Lance, just because I can appreciate how he looks does not mean I have fallen for him. Besides it wouldn't matter anyway. He's a Paladin."

"Wait… Allura no," Lance's face fell. He already knew what she was thinking. She _always_ had to be the responsible one to the point of a fault. "Allura don't tell me that if Shiro liked you back, you would refuse to be with him."

"Lance, you don't understand. Maybe when you are older you will. But it wouldn't be appropriate."

"But Allura!"

"No Lance!" She raised her voice this time. Lance knew this was not the time to try to make a rebuttal. "Now none of this matters because I don't like Shiro and he does not like me,"

"Allura don't say that, Shiro-"

"Lance, _please."_ He was surprised to find pain in her eyes. And then Lance realized how dumb he had been. Just because he was putting this all together recently does not mean Allura was too. She had thought about this before. And it pained her to do so. She was burdened by the responsibility she had been given.

He thought it was best to drop it.

"Okay, I'll lay off for now. Anyway here is how I got my black eye."

Lance proceeded to tell her everything that happened between him and Keith. She was angry that Keith had hit Lance but after much insisting from Lance that everything was okay, she choose to not hold it against him.

Allura was happy that Lance had trusted her enough to tell her the truth when he was too afraid to tell Shiro. While she had her reservations she was warmed by the fact that she could confide in Lance her feelings towards Shiro. Not that she had any. But the place on her hand where he had kissed her still burned.

Shiro and Keith eventually approached them. Shiro like Allura was still covered in flour but Keith looked much better and now only needed a simple band-aid on his face.

"Keith told me what he and Lance found on the planet," Shiro began. "You should go wash the flour off… I think… well,"

"You're going to want to go down to the planet yourself," Keith finished.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Yeah so okay not as good as the other chapters but now things are established and we are in act two of what I think so far is going to be three or maybe four.**

 **Also, I started a collection of Shallura one shots. Called "Shallura collection". I take requests and suggestions so go read that and leave a review with a request and I will write it!**

 **Thank you to all of you who give reviews.**

 **-VF**


End file.
